The Deceiver
by genies9
Summary: He was a Yeerk traitor. He was a highranking Yeerk. He was a lover. He could be anything he wanted to be, once someone finally gave him the chance. This is the story of one person who did everything wrong, and how he made it right again. Chapter 3 now up
1. Prologue

A/N: I've been trying to write about Priton for a very long time. He has to be my most enduring original character of all time. He's been around since I was in fifth grade, writing fan fiction, though I didn't know that's what it was called. Seven years later, this is my attempt at writing a story for him.

Technically speaking, it's only a fic about a Yeerk. Not really about the Animorphs themselves, though they're mentioned.

So, yeah. Hopefully it's all right. Read and review. Tell me what you think. I'll try not to be too hurt if you don't like it, promise. ;-)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs, Yeerks, etc. PLEASE DON'T SUE ME!

Prologue

My name is Priton Six-Two-Four.

"_Traitor! Hypocrite!"_

It's been a full year since I last saw her, but her words still run through my mind late at night when Nick, my host, isn't awake to distract me, when the silence is as deafening as her shouts were that day.

"_You're no better than the rest of your kind."_

I used to be a traitor. I was almost the Yeerk equivalent of a terrorist. Or at least, that's where it led. I opposed the war. I had a host body, a girl named Jenny, who I came to look at in a way no sane Yeerk should ever look at his host. Not if he wants retain his sanity, anyway.

"_After everything you go back to… to… this!"_

She was my host for three long years. At the end of those three years I let her go. I freed her, and abandoned myself to the little world of my Yeerk pool, and tried to forget. I would have done anything to forget.

That was about two years ago. We were being attacked all the time by what we thought was a group of Andalites who had survived the last space battle above Earth. We knew now that they were really humans—teenagers, even. The same age now as Jenny was when I infested her.

It was six months after I freed Jenny that I took a new host.

In my attempts to forget, I abandoned my old ideas and embraced—or tried to embrace, I never did quite get rid of a few pangs of guilt—the ideas that the empire had been feeding us for our entire lives.

His name was Nick. He was twenty, the same age as Jenny would be then. He wasn't exactly voluntary, but we got used to each other. I had never been quite comfortable with myself and what I was, and sometimes being on better terms with my host made it easier.

A lot of times, though, it made it so much harder.

"_I loved you. But that doesn't mean anything to you, does it?"_

It meant the world. But I couldn't tell her that.

I rose up in the ranks. I pushed my past out of my mind, tried to forget it had ever happened. There were Yeerks who knew. But they couldn't say anything without implicating themselves. And they were afraid of what I knew about them, too.

I went looking for her. I wanted to see her. I wanted to see her without having to be inside her, looking into a mirror. I wanted to see her like any normal man saw a woman.

But I wasn't a man. It didn't matter how many hosts I took or what I made myself out to be, I would never be a man.

And she hated me now for what I had turned into. So what else did I have left?

But things could change.

We had the morphing cube.

The first time I saw it, I could only stare. Freedom lay in that little box. Touch it, and I could be anything I wanted. Anything.

I didn't have to be Priton the Traitor. Priton the Hypocrite. I didn't even have to be Priton the High-Ranking Yeerk.

I could be anything. And who would know?


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Ugh. I forgot thought speak didn't work so well on ffn. -sigh- Terribly inconvenient, you know. Anyway. "( )" means thought speak, of course.

Trying to think out how things happen. I'm doing this so backwards (backwards for me, anyway)--thinking of the action stuff before the romance. So strange. It all gets planned out eventually, but it's so creatively annoying not to be thinking about fictional smooching and love confessing.

I'm a romantic writer at heart. I can't help it.

Part 1- Priton

Chapter 1

_Three years earlier…_

(Are you crazy?)

(Quite possibly,) I answered, stuffing the last of my—well, Jenny's—clothes into the locker and closing it.

(What the hell do I need to know how to swim for? It's not like we're going to the beach anytime soon.) This was Jenny's attempt at convincing me that swimming lessons was not a good idea. She had been attempting this for the past four days, since I'd called the Y about them.

(What if I get sent to Leera? I locked the locker and started toward the doors that led out to the pool. (A person who can't swim would be an easy target out on a battlefield, you know.)

Jenny made a sound that sounded almost like a snort. I don't know how she does that. The things you learn when you can't control your actions, I guess. (They wouldn't send you to Leera.)

(Let's just say they did.)

(You wouldn't go.)

(Point taken. Still. We're doing this.) I pushed open the door and walked out onto the pool deck. (Besides, I already paid. And it's a private lesson. You won't even have to worry about the little kids making fun of you.)

(Funny, P. Really funny.)

A tall guy, about Jenny's age, came striding toward us, smiling and holding his hand out. "Are you Jenny?" I nodded. "I'm Nick. I'm your instructor."

I'm not sure what's worse about the memory of this moment. Knowing that, two years later, when I saw Jenny again, that she would recognize him? Knowing that right that moment I was looking at my future, and none of us could have foreseen it to stop it?

Maybe all of it. Maybe none of it.

We started in the shallow end. It was only three feet of water, but it made Jenny jumpy anyway, and that tended to make _me_ jumpy. I glanced over the side of the pool apprehensively, wondering if I hadn't made a mistake in instancing on this. Not knowing how to swim wasn't really that big a deal, was it? Why freak out my host needlessly?

This was what I got for acting on whims. How many Yeerks went out of their way to try and alleviate their hosts' phobias? I couldn't think of a single one. It was the product of getting too close, and I knew it. And it was a sign that Jenny was herself getting too close that she wasn't putting up more of a fight about it.

Nick urged Jenny/me into the water, and I stood there, shivering in the cold water, mentally reminding myself of all the reasons why I should get out now.

We ended up floating on our back; though don't ask me how we got there. Nick's hand was under Jenny's back, holding us up at first.

(See? This isn't so bad, is it?)

Jenny was silent for a long moment. (I guess.)

When Nick took his hand away, I decided it was time to have a little fun. I released control, and just mentally sat back and watched.

Jenny didn't notice it right away. Which made it all the more funny, of course. (Hey, she said a moment later, we're doing this on our own.)

If I'd been in control, I would have smiled. (No. _You're _doing it on your own.)

(WHAT?) She jerked up in surprise, and then sank. Jenny popped back up, gasping and spitting out water. (You did that on purpose!)

(I'm not the one who needs the swimming lessons, you are. _I_ know how to swim.)

Jenny rolled her eyes, then smiled when she realized what she had done. I lived for moments like that. After being a controller for a little over two years, it made her happy just to be able to do simple things like that. It made me feel guilty, though to let her go meant I could never see her again.

And I was too selfish to allow that.

Nick was talking. "That was a good start. Next time—"

I stopped paying attention after that. A long time later, I would let myself go back through Nick's memories and find this one, see it all as he must have seen it. I'd never seen mine and Jenny's interactions from another perspective before. It looked strange. But the look on her face looked wonderful.

I'm getting too sentimental now. Remembering days like that do that to me. Things were different then. We were past the point where she hated me. We hadn't quite reached the point where I hated myself.

Those were the days when we were falling in love. It was scary. How do you deal with something like that? Of all the instructions that we'd been given, we'd never been instructed on what to do if you fall in love with your host. The most anyone could tell me was "Don't ever do it."

I'm not even sure how it happened. I just know how it ended.

But I wish I could go back to moments like that. Silly as they were, I miss those moments.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Watch Animorphs of YouTube and the reviews will come...

Chapter 2

It wasn't entirely fun and games in those days. There were some things that tended to put a damper on it.

(You know, for a so-called advanced species, you sure have a problem passing Calculus,) Jenny mused as I made my way through the parking lot of the local community college. We were taking classes there—it was supposed to be in preparation for going to a four-year university later, though I don't know if she went or not.

(It's not my fault math's not your best subject,) I muttered, pulling the car keys from Jenny's purse. (I can only work with what I've got.)

(Hmph,) was her only reply to that.

We made it to the car before I realized we were being followed. I stiffened, hoping whoever it was would just walk past, probably on their way to their own car. I'd heard enough stories about what happened to women who got caught alone at night.

There's one thing to be said about Yeerks, anyway. We may not be the greatest species in the galaxy, but at least we don't do things like that to our own people.

"Priton Six-Two-Four."

Ah. Now there was a whole different batch of things to be worried about.

I turned to see three men—human-Controllers, of course—coming toward me. "Yes?"

"We have something to discuss with you," the one who had called out my name said. The three created a sort of half-circle around me, blocking escape. "We know you don't approve of the empire."

My eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

He smiled. "I am Sub-Visser Seventeen." He motioned with his hand to the man standing on his right. "This is Edeet Seven-One-Nine. And this—" he half-turned toward the man on his left—"is Ravel Five-Nine-Two."

I gaped. Ravel Five-Nine-Two was a well known assassin. He was also a suspected insurgent, but no one who suspected that could prove it. Or were otherwise too terrified of him to say anything.

It could not be anything good if they were bringing Ravel Five-Nine-Two.

(What's going on?) Jenny asked, sounding worried. Of course she was.

"What do you want?" I demanded, ignoring Jenny. I couldn't be distracted now.

"We have a proposition for you." The sub-visser glanced at his comrades, then looked back at me. "We are trying to assemble a group of anti-empire sympathizers to try and…" he paused for a moment, as if trying to think of the right word. "…forcefully stop the war."

"You're a sub-visser," I said slowly, "and you want to stop a war that's giving you power?"

He smiled at me. "Rank can be very misleading, Priton. You'd be wise to remember that."

They were terrorists. They didn't outright say that, of course, what half-wit would admit to that? But that's exactly what they were. And they were trying to recruit me to be a part of it all.

I never made a secret of how I felt about the war. I didn't go around broadcasting it to the world; I wasn't an idiot. That sort of thing would only get me killed. And get Jenny infested with another Yeerk, or maybe even killed, too. But still. There were certainly people who knew.

(Priton?)

(Be quiet!) I yelled, feeling too jumpy to care what I sounded like. Jenny fell silent.

"I'm not interested, thanks," I said, trying to sound calmer than I felt. "If you don't mind, I need to get going." I looked at my car pointedly, which they were blocking.

The sub-visser stepped out of the way, and other two followed suit. As I hurried to unlock my door, I heard him say, "The offer will always be open, Priton. Remember that."

When I looked up, they were already gone.

It was a long time before Jenny said anything again. (What was that all about?)

(Nothing,) I replied, feeling drained. (Nothing we need to be concerned about, anyway.)

_Rank can be very misleading, Priton. You'd be wise to remember that._

Sub-visser Seventeen's words would haunt me for a very long time.

* * *

A/N: I just totally turned my favorite author's name into two Yeerk names. I am talented. 

Just smile and nod.


End file.
